Foreign pilots are to be drafted into Chinese airlines to relieve the shortage of qualified flyers plaguing the world's fastest-growing aviation sector.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) has drawn up a soon-to-be-launched policy of recruiting pilots from abroad, an administration official told China Daily yesterday.

"Overseas pilots will be able to be employed by Chinese carriers after obtaining flight licenses in China," said Rao Shaowu, director of the CAAC's Flight Standard Department.

To do that, they must pass strict exams, Rao added.

China's booming commercial aviation industry is taking off faster than the country can train pilots, a trend threatening future growth and hard-won advances in air safety.

About 11,000 pilots are employed to fly more than 770 aircraft operated by the major Chinese commercial airlines, according to CAAC statistics - a figure industry experts say is inadequate to cope with rocketing demand for passenger services.

And demand for pilots is likely to increase as domestic carriers expand their fleets.

Around 145 new aircraft will be delivered this year, and these new planes alone are expected to push aircraft numbers beyond the capacity of training schools to supply new pilots.

The Civil Aviation Flight University of China - the nation's major training school for commercial airline pilots based in Sichuan and Henan provinces - graduates a maximum of 600 pilots a year.

Based on the delivery of new aircraft, industry experts estimate that China has needed between 1,200 and 1,600 new pilots every year since 2000, far more than the university can train.

There is a particular shortage of experienced pilots qualified to hold the rank of captain - at least one pilot with the rank of captain is required on every flight, a CAAC press official said.

Airlines are reluctant to comment on the shortage, but some smaller Chinese carriers had been forced to flout government policy and recruit foreign pilots as a stopgap measure to keep their aircraft flying.

They include Shenzhen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and the country's first private operator, Okay Airways.

Daniela Schmidt, a 25-year-old Swiss woman, is employed by Okay Airways as a co-pilot.

Schmidt followed her Dutch boyfriend to China last year even though she did not speak or read Chinese and had never visited the country.

"I didn't think I could find work in China," she said. "But China is giving me an opportunity to fly that I wouldn't otherwise have."

Besides Schmidt, a Chinese-Canadian, another Swiss national and four pilots from Hong Kong, all aged from 25 to 30, also work for Okay. All of them obtained pilot's licenses in their home countries but could not find work there.

"A lot of trained pilots in the West can't find opportunities to put some experience under their belts, while we in China are short of co-pilots, captains and even technicians," Okay's President Liu Jieyin said.

Liu said he intends to recruit more foreign pilots.

Foreign pilots working for Okay receive salaries of around 20,000 yuan (US$2,466) a month - higher than the 11,000 yuan (US$1,356) Air China offers its domestic co-pilots, but well below the European standard.

However, Schmidt's enthusiasm is undimmed. "I would fly for less, as long as I can fly," she said. "It's been my goal since I was 15."

(China Daily July 28, 2005)